Politics

Buhari set to present 2018 budget to NASS

Published

7 years ago

October 27, 2017

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The endorsement of the 2018 budget draft by Federal Executive Council (FEC) at the weekly meeting on Thursday, set the stage of the conclusion of the budget for next year and the readiness of President Muhammadu Buhari to present the fiscal documents to the National Assembly before the end of 2017.

The Minister of Budget and National Planning, Udoma Udo Udoma, in a media interaction after the FEC meeting, had disclosed that the president would present the budget estimates to the National Assembly as soon as a date is confirmed.

Details of the budget estimate were kept secret but they were insinuations that the 2018 budget may have risen to over N8 trillion.

However, the Budget and National Planning Minister resisted the pressure to disclose details of the budget estimate. He had insisted that the details would be made public when all the processes required for the budget to become law have been completed.

Meanwhile, the Senate had penultimate week summoned the Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun and the Budget and National Planning Minister to ascertain the performance of the 2017 budget. After the cross-examination, the Senate expressed displeasure over what the Upper Chamber of the National Assembly considered selective implementation of the 2017 budget by the executive.

However, the Federal Government of Nigeria has so far released N450 billion to fund capital projects in the 2017 budget, Finance Minister, Kemi Adeosun said during the briefing.

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Nigeria recently recorded a marginal GDP growth of 0.55% after recording five quarters of negative growth.

The country is still battling with the challenges of reform that would enhance the production capacity of the economy. These challenges are co-existing with raising foreign debt profile, incremental corruption, unstable foreign reserves, and import dominated economy with its attendant crisis of rising unemployment, crime which include kidnapping, terrorism and armed robbery.

Nigerians await President Buahri on how he addresses these economic malaise in the country while presenting the 2018 budget and how the how Chambers of the National Assembly vet the budget in the interests of Nigerian citizens.